Of Monsters, Sleepovers and Bad Choices
by SammyQuill
Summary: Moegi talks Sakura into an impromptu sleepover. Is it possible to hide your nightmares from someone sleeping three feet away from you? Kakasaku, AU, Make It Work challenge at the kakasaku comm on LJ.


**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto

**A/R:** This is written to the _Make It Work_ challenge issued by the lovely nimblnymph over at the Kakashi x Sakura community on LJ and therefore, is an offering to her in hopes that she will be pleased and grace our otherwise dull lives with porn.

There were three levels to the prompt, elementary (which had to includes "peach" somehow), intermediate (where we had to show waffle toasters being used with deadly force) and advanced (in which the first line had to be "there's a monster under my bed"). If someone decided to do a level above the elementary, they had to include all previous prompts as well so, for example, I did the advanced level and included all three prompts.

Also, this is written in my _A Tale of Harts_ universe so if you haven't read that, you'll most likely not understand what's going on. If you _have_ read it, then I look forwards to hearing what you think of this little spin off.

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><p>"Because… there's a monster under my bed," the blonde improvises quickly, making Sakura look up from her inventory forms in surprise.<p>

"Really, Moegi-chan? Monsters?"

"It's true… they come at night and give me bad dreams and even make me cry… _sometimes_," the genin continues earnestly, looking up at the Konoha turned Kiri medic with big blue earnest eyes. Eyes that weren't fooling the Kunoichi for a minute.

"Moegi-chan, you have to go back home now, it's getting late and your mother will be worried," Sakura tries to coax the child only to be rewarded with a vagarious shake of the younger girl's head.

"But I told Oka-chan I'll stay with you and Tsuki-neechan and-" the girls stops abruptly, realizing that she has given too much away.

So Tsuki had been in on it too, Sakura reflects, not entirely surprised. Ever since bitch-sama had decided to make her life miserable and Kakashi… Tsuki and Moegi had been trying to help her as much as they could, unofficially, of course. On her part, Sakura always tried to act unperturbed – after all, it wasn't _their_ fault she wasn't able to sleep at night, and that when she did, she dreamt of perfectly carved angels who cracked when unveiled, shuddering her awake – in front of Tsuki and the genin who dropped by the clinic almost all the time now. She supposed she realty wasn't doing a good enough job if her colleague and adopted little genin were thinking of ways to keep her company even in the dark hours of the night.

"Please Sakura-neechan, I promise I won't be a bother and Tsuki-neechan is going to her home tonight because Koi-san's back. I know because I heard Kaide-chan's father saying 'that prawnshit's getting some tonight'. I don't think he likes Koi-san much…"

Sakura listens to the little girl's monologue with raised eyebrows. Tsuki hadn't mentioned taking the night off, which was very unlike her organized friend. And from what she'd heard about this Koi fellow, he didn't seem at all like gentle, kind Tsuki. Briefly, the medic wonders what made them get married but decides to leave that for a more appropriate time. Right now, she had a little genin to deal with.

"Alright, you can stay here for the night, but you must go to school tomorrow. Deal?"

"Oh no, not with lazy-sensei still in charge," the girl pouts, looking up at Sakura once again with those big blue eyes. Damn the girl would make a beautiful kunoichi some day.

"Sorry, Moegi-chan, that's my offer. You stay here for the night and then go to school in the morning or you go home now and come here tomorrow morning when you _should_ be in school."

"Fine, I'll go to school, even if we don't really learn anything. I guess I'll just watch Hatake-sensei sleep or read his book for a few hours," Moegi lowers her head in defeat, clearly not happy at being dealt such a rough hand.

"Well, why don't you go get your night stuff then, while I finish up here," Sakura smiles at the blonde, getting a vibrant one in return. It never fails to touch Sakura just how much the little Kiri genin openly admires her.

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><p>Later that night, Sakura finds herself enjoying Moegi's company more than she had expected. The blonde has a million things to tell Sakura and when she does take a break, she wants to know simply <em>everything<em> about the medic, about Konoha, about all the powerful kunoichi and especially about Sakura's closest friends.

"Well, there's Naruto. He's a bit of an idiot but when the chips are down, there's no guy you can rely on more than him. He'll stick by you no matter what," Sakura says fondly, missing the warm, comforting presence of the hyperactive genin whom she hadn't seen in months. "He's away on a mission right now but if you ever come to Konoha or he has to stop by here, I'll make sure you two meet."

She tells her about Ino and her constant badgering for Sakura to "go out", a concept she bypasses explaining to the young girl. She tells her about Hinata, Sai, Izumo and Kotetsu and even about Tsunade Shishou as she applies peach colored nail polish to the girl's toes as an extra treat. Moegi, in turn, loves hearing about the Hokage and her many endeavors. Every tale fascinates the little girl until Sakura mentions Sasuke.

"Inari-sensei told us about an Uchiha, he said they were all bad people."

"Well, I think your Inari-sensei is wrong, Moegi-chan. I don't think there are any bad people, just bad choices really."

The girl looks up in surprise at the statement. "How can you say that, there are so many bad people in the world?"

"Sweetie, yes, and those people are bad because they made bad choices. But everyone makes bad choices now and then. It's really up to us to decide if they're worth forgiving or not. Take Kaide-chan for example: you don't want to forgive her because she pushed you down and now you think she's bad. But if you forgave her, would she still be so?" Sakura explains, hoping she wasn't confusing the genin further.

"You mean it's up to _me_ to make Kaide-chan good or bad?" bewilderment is written clearly in Moegi's pale blue eyes.

"In a sense, yes. And Naruto thinks Sasuke is worth forgiving, which makes me think he must see something in him that no one else can. And I trust Naruto's judgment, he hasn't been wrong once," she adds with a smile.

The confusion in her eyes tells Sakura she's lost the girl and she stretches her arms behind her, yawning as she does so. She is just about to declare it bedtime when Moegi asks a final question.

"Did Hatake-sensei make bad choices that upset you?"

"No he didn't… I did," Sakura admits slowly, staring at the pillow as if talking to the fluffy feather bag instead of the girl in front of her. Moegi makes to open her mouth to launch another volley of questions but Sakura cuts her short. "And it's late, come on, lights out."

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><p><em>The Island of Little Seal is just as peaceful as it was that night. A merry campfire burns and two figures lie beside it, the smaller, pink haired one curled up to the burlier, masked ninja. Even from her position somewhere in the sky, Sakura knows it's her and Kakashi... back then… <em>

_Her visions sharpens, zooms to herself looking at Kakashi's face, slowly inching her fingers towards the plain black cloth that keeps his face hidden from her. She knows exactly what the other Sakura is thinking and she wants to shout out a warning, tell her that this is not a good idea. She tries to catch the other Sakura's attention; she even tries to scream so as to jolt the sleeping Kakashi awake and end the moment but all her efforts are useless. The Sakura on the ground removes the masks, revels in the beauty of her lover…_

_And then he wakes up. _

Sakura wakes up with a start, shaking and sweating in the darkness of her small room behind the clinic. A gasp follows soon after and she realizes Moegi is awake, and most likely scared.

Sakura tries to reach for the light switch, hits her fingers against the headboard and curses, startling Moegi even more. When she finally hits the lights, she sees the genin in her bed, looking scared and clutching to her front, of all things, an old waffle toaster.

"Nee-chan, is there someone out there. I don't have a kunai but I think we can use this."

"Relax sweetie, no one's out there, I just… had a bad dream," Sakura pads towards the genin, taking the waffle toaster out of her hands and then hugging the girl comfortingly, rubbing soothing circles on her back.. "I guess there's a monster under my bed too."

The blonde giggles slightly at the joke. "We can't use it then, everyone knows monsters aren't affected by metal."

"Really," asks Sakura surprised. Where would Moegi pick up that little bit of trivia?

"Yes, goes right through them," the girl answers with utter conviction and Sakura lets it go. "But if it was an intruder-"

"Then I'm sure the brave genin would have clobbered him on the head with it and knocked him unconscious," Sakura finishes, a smile on her lips.

"Exactly!"

Since no one felt like sleeping after and neither Sakura nor Moegi wanted to discus the medic's "bad dream", Sakura decided it was the right time to make cocoa and break out some more Konoha candy she had been saving. In the end, the cocoa and sugar – as well as other random conversations – did their job until the sun rose in brilliant shades of pink, gold and orange across the lake and Sakura reminded her young companion Moegi's end of the bargain.

"Get ready for school, then," she insisted over the groans of the girl, brushing her own hair and getting ready to open up the clinic for the day. In the end, she helped Moegi style her blonde curls around the Kiri headband just like she did herself, cheering the genin to no end. With a bounce in her step, the girl left for school just as Tsuki arrived to help Sakura for the day.

For her part, Moegi would go to school as she would have on any other day – wearing her headband around her hair and startling her new sensei slightly - and not mention how her nee-chan had bad dreams about the man whom she had made bad choices around. Unbeknownst to Kakashi, the genin would observe him closely all day, deciding if he really was a bad person or not.


End file.
